Prototype

It's not unusual for prototype devices to find their way out in to the big wide world, but the latest is of particular interest to iPhone nerds. An apparent early prototype of the very first iPhone has just been sold on eBay for $1499 and is running an internal diagnostic software build:

A rare Apple iPhone N90 prototype, the code name for the iPhone 4 series, has appeared for sales on eBay with a very strange logo on the back panel. Rather than the usual Apple logo which we all know and love, this prototype has a logo which appears to resemble the Death Star from the Star Wars movies.

A prototype of an Apple phone has been uncovered and it dates all the way back to 1983. Designer Hartmut Esslinger came up with the design whilst working for Apple on other projects such as the Apple IIc. Wikipedia has it noted that Esslinger was contracted to Apple in a $1,000,000 a year deal.

Apple is rumored to be testing wearable iPod-like devices that fit around your wrist and controlled not by touch, but with your voice using Siri. The concept may be difficult to understand for some, but if you think of devices like the new Jawbone UP -- or even Apple's own iPod Nano paired with wrist watch bands -- the idea starts to become a bit more clear.

San Francisco Police Department have asked to review the surveillance videos from the bar where an iPhone prototype was supposedly left by an Apple employee. Jose Valle, whose family own the Cava 22 bar, was contacted by SFPD with a request to see the footage between the dates of July 21 and 22nd.

Business Insider talked with a developer who had early access to an iPad, before it was even announced, and he revealed a intriguing tale of physically chained down devices, hidden behind frames, subject to spot checks.

Apple flew the iPads to the developers destination accompanied by at least one engineer. They had to be kept in a room with no windows. Apple changed the locks on the doors and took the names and social security numbers of the four people who were allowed access to it. The iPads were fixed to the desk with high strength security cabling, similar to the material used for cycle locks.

The two men accused of theft of an iPhone 4 prototype last year have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The iPhone 4 in question was left in a bar by Apple employee Robert Gray Powell in Redwood City, California. The two men, Brian Hogan (pictured above) and Robert Sage Wallover will face charges of midemeanors rather than felonies.

According to CNET, Apple has once again lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, this time Cava2 in San Francisco's Mission district.

Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood, according to the source.

When San Francisco police and Apple's investigators visited the house, they spoke with a man in his twenties who acknowledged being at Cava 22 on the night the device went missing. But he denied knowing anything about the phone. The man gave police permission to search the house, and they found nothing, the source said. Before leaving the house, the Apple employees offered the man money for the phone no questions asked, the source said, adding that the man continued to deny he had knowledge of the phone.

A MacRumors forum member going by the handle guigsh posted the above photo(shop) in their forums this morning, claiming it was a spy shot of iPhone 5 taken in the office of a French operator. While we've seen spy shots of HP webOS devices under similar circumstances in the past, this one doesn't look much more believable than those [Chinese iClones we've been seeing lately].

A follow-up post from the thread author gives us the following information: